Climate change affects everyone and now you can see just how quickly you and everyone else are affecting climate change. Last week, Deutsche Bank put up the world’s first real time carbon counter. The seven-story high sign is in the middle of Manhattan across from Madison Square Garden for the masses to see just how many greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the counter, which is powered by 41,000 LED light bulbs. Right now, the number is 3.64 trillion tonnes, which is the highest level of greenhouse gases recorded in 800,000 years. Every second, 800 tonnes are added on.

The sign wasn’t created only to scare each of us into lowering our individual carbon footprints, though. Deutsche Bank hopes that by putting the growing number on display, they’ll spark new public debates on how to stop global warming on a larger scale. The United Nations releases numbers on global warming every five years or so, now you can get a good picture of the damage every second.

If you don’t live in NYC, you can still see the live tally. Click here to read more

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I am relatively impatient when it comes to waiting.  I am constantly scrolling through old emails as I wait for and sit on the subway; I find myself making calls while standing in lines; I even pay for express shipping on items that I don’t really need urgently.  If there is a particular type of waiting that drives me mad, it’s definitely flight delays.

As a native of Brazil, I developed a severe dislike for flight delays having to travel back and forth from South Florida to Sao Paulo two to three times per year (as a kid it was much easier to deal with thanks to my Game Boy). Given my disdain of flight delays, I cringed at a recent study by the U.S. Joint Economics Committee. The report showed that in 2007 alone, delayed flights consumed an additional 740 million gallons of fuel, resulting in a whopping $1.6 billion wasted and 7 million tons of carbon emitted for no reason.

Surprisingly, I also heard about recent efforts on the part of airlines that actually justified longer flights. By slowing down cruising speeds and tacking on a few extra minutes to each leg, airlines have shown that they can save millions of dollars in fuel and thousands of tons of carbon emissions. For example, Southwest Airlines projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes.

So, if the airlines can save money (and hopefully keep ticket prices at bay while energy prices keep skyrocketing), use less fuel (which helps out the environment and energy prices), and only add about 10 minutes to a nine hour flight from New York to Sao Paulo, I give it a solid two thumbs up!  After all, who is REALLY going to notice the difference, aside from your everyday macrophobiac (fear of long waits)?

But seriously, no more delays.

-Raphael, Greenzer Team - Business Development

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